"What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes that would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/What_to_the_Slave_Is_the_Fourth_of_July%3F
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?
9 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? →
Related Quotes
"What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freed…"
"I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable …"
"At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the n…"
"Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation…"
"Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up …"
"But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm o…"
"The fiat of the Almighty, "Let there be Light," has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, s…"
"Today, in this special broadcast, we begin with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Dougl…"
"Dear friends, respected citizens of Russia, during these minutes, we are not only checking our watches, we are also c…"
"My fellow citizens of Russia, dear friends. In a few minutes another year of our lives will become the past. It is fa…"